HippoCampus is a website that provides FREE academic multimedia content including instructional videos, images, GIF's, simulations, and more. Literally, you can probably find a video or some related multimedia form for any topic you'd ever want to teach on. Check out the following video that gives an introduction to ratios - it's super cheesy but I can see middle schoolers totally digging it (or at least engaging by laughing)!
*Note I did have to go to Youtube to link the video, but it was actually found on HippoCampus!
Ease of use: The website is completely free AND you don't even have to sign up, make an account, or share any personal information to use it! You can search for any video in the search bar and the website has an included FAQ's page to assist in any user questions that may come up.
Versatility: Want to focus on subject areas other than math? HippoCampus has many other subjects to browse content in including biology, physics, sociology, economics, religion, english and more! Also, if you'd like to create a free account you can have the ability of creating 'playlists'. This allows you to save and collect 'links' on the website to create an easily accessible inventory or plan out a lesson. You can also share the link to your playlist in a similar format to inviting other people to a Google Doc so that they can have easy access to the material as well.
Overall likelihood of using it: Absolutely! I can see using this for instruction in my classroom. I also can definitely see myself using this to inform myself on subject areas I might not be the strongest in, in order to plan and prepare for my own instruction.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On to tool number 2! ~~~~~~~~~~~~
The second tool I've chosen to share is: Nearpod! Nearpod is a platform in which teachers and educators can create, share, and teach interactive lesson plans. It can be used to engage students through interactive whiteboards, personalized virtual reality experiences, and includes a variety of different assessment tools. Just take a look at this lesson plan that's also customizable to fit your own teaching style and preferences! (See slide number 13 for a really cool virtual reality scene)!
Ease of use: The website is pretty easy to navigate and even allows one to preview a variety of resources without the need to get an account. However, signing up for a free account definitely increases the access to resources one can find (and the opens up the ability to use it with students in the classroom). Also there are over 6,500 ready-to-use lessons to choose from and customize if you'd rather have a template vs. starting from scratch.
Versatility: Planning, instructing, assessing...you can do all three with Nearpod. Check out the video below to see how science teacher Rod Wong uses this resource:
Overall likelihood of using it: As mentioned above this resource can be used in all three of the facets involved in Teaching (planning, instructing, assessing). It would therefore be incredibly easy to incorporate into classroom use. I love it's potential to make lessons incredibly engaging to students through the use of modern technology as well as it's abilities to create and implement various assessments. Not to mention, Nearpod has the capability to give you post-session reports with detailed records in how each student responded and participated with the material. The possibilities truly are endless.
Nearpod sounds pretty cool! I am impressed that this is not only an informational resource, but that it also has capabilities to provide student assessment as well. You write-up was so good that I am now going to go back to revisit this application and give it a fair shake in my repertoire. Great organization of your thoughts and information. This was an enjoyable blog to peruse.
ReplyDeleteAs for HippoCampus, anytime we get FREE and especially when you don't have to register for it, makes it more enticing to utilize. I think we can all agree that being inundated with emails is exhausting!
I totally agree with you! These days I find myself being drawn to resources that have more of a 'no strings attached' feel to them...at least when it comes to being able to check them out before committing to creating an account. Thank you for the high praise, I'm glad you found the resources applicable to yourself as well!!
DeleteHippocampus is totally up my ally! I almost wrote about this one too! I really like that I didn't have to immediately set up an account to access the variety of videos! I will be signing up and exploring more though as it is awesome! I also, really liked all the videos you provided for each of the resources! I'm going to look into this resource more as I didn't explore this one.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the awesome post and information!
Thank YOU for the wonderful comments! It was quite fun trying to figure out how to insert videos into the blog...I even got to play around with the HTML formatting a bit. I hope you enjoy the resources as you explore them more!
DeleteAmber,
ReplyDeleteI was also amazed at the vast amount of websites there are. I wasn't expecting such long lists. However, I am thankful to be learning about them now before I begin my placement.
I love HippoCampus the teachers I have mentored with back home just rave about it. It's nice to be able to have a website that we can go to for our lessons that have a way of explaining, even with the cheesy videos. Cheesy does help things stick though.
Nearpod sounds super cool. A tool that I know that I will probably utilize the more I go through it.
Faith,
ReplyDeleteThat's so neat that you've heard of HippoCampus before and have some experience with it! I felt that way about BrainPop; it was a resource I actually grew up being taught with in grade school but hardly anyone I talked to in our class had heard of it. I agree, it's nice to be able to have some experience with all of these different resources prior to beginning teaching!